April 16, 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting which killed 32 people back in 2007. Hampton's Dave McCain holds the annual Hogs4Hokies Spirit Ride in memory of the 32 victims, including his daughter Lauren.

April 16, 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting which killed 32 people back in 2007. Hampton's Dave McCain holds the annual Hogs4Hokies Spirit Ride in memory of the 32 victims, including his daughter Lauren.

There's a scar on Dave McCain's right forearm that he likens to the pain of April 16, 2007.

He doesn't notice it all the time, but it's still there — a reminder of the pain he bore on the day his daughter died. He thinks about her daily.

"Just the way she loved life," he said.

Lauren McCain, of Hampton, died on the morning of April 16, 2007, in her German class in Norris Hall at Virginia Tech. She was one of 32 people fatally shot by Seung-Hui Cho. Several more students and faculty were injured.

Also a Virginia Tech student, Cho opened fire at Ambler Johnston Hall, killing two students. Nearly two hours later, he entered Norris Hall, chained the main entrance doors shut and continued his rampage in several classrooms before killing himself. At the time, it was the deadliest shooting in the country carried out by a single gunman.

April 16, 2017, marks the 10th anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting which killed 32 people back in 2007. Hampton's Dave McCain holds the annual Hogs4Hokies Spirit Ride in memory of the 32 victims, including his daughter Lauren.

One decade later, Dave McCain and many others around the Peninsula are grappling with the loss as they remember the day that shook communities statewide.

Instead of candlelight vigils and ceremonies, Dave McCain opts for the hum of his 2005 Harley Road King. The weekend of April 16, he goes for a long ride, where he can focus only on the road ahead.

Later this month, he does Hogs4Hokies — a ride of 100-plus motorcyclists that leaves from Manassas, Hampton and Richmond to the Virginia Tech campus. It raises money for 32 scholarships — one for each student who died April 16, 2007. McCain heard about it through Frank Salzano, class of 1983, who spearheaded the ride 10 years ago.

"I didn't want to get into the political stuff or the social stuff or the mental health stuff, and the other families did that and they're doing real well with that," he said. "But this is where I wanted to apply my efforts."

McCain isn't alone in his efforts to remember the fallen 32.

The Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA founded a scholarship in honor of Nicole White, a Smithfield resident killed in Norris Hall. Suzanne Higgs Midgley, a Hampton native who then was a sophomore at Tech, contributed to "April 16: Virginia Tech Remembers," a book recounting the hours and days after the shooting that was published in August 2007.

They all bear the weight of the two hours and 36 minutes that changed lives.

'I didn't lose her'

The McCains hadn't heard from Lauren as news starting to come out of Blacksburg. She had broken her phone that week, but by early afternoon on April 16, 2007, worry started to creep in.

They got in touch with Lauren's roommate, who told them Lauren's German class was in Norris Hall. McCain and his wife immediately set off for Blacksburg. They took refuge that night in the apartment of a man helping to move his daughter.

Still no word from the university.

"I didn't sleep," McCain said. "About 4 a.m., I was standing and looking out the window, and that's when it got dark. You knew something was wrong."

The coroner notified the McCains last.

"We were fortunate that we had time to process it," McCain said.

Every year on the last Saturday in April, Dave McCain gets on his Harley and drives the hundreds of miles with Hogs4Hokies to Virginia Tech. Each participant pays $32, which is donated to the VA Tech Foundation.

"It's a hard thing to do, but we're going to get there one of these days," he said. "We're going to get all 32."

His three kids have done it with him. Last year, his 80-year-old mother sat on the back of his motorcycle for the last leg of the journey as they sped down Interstate 460, chasing police officers.

"I love that, because how often do you get to chase the cops?" he said.

McCain can point to many things that remind him of his daughter: an Indian restaurant in Newport News where the two would go for lunch. Slurpees at 7-Eleven.

He remembers his daughter's compassion and strong faith that drove her to be a good person. She had goals of working in ministry abroad.

"She was ready to get out in the world and make an impact," he said.

"I didn't lose her. I know where she's at," he said.

White's legacy

That close connection to faith is a common thread between Lauren McCain and Nicole White, the Smithfield native killed that day in Norris Hall.

White was a junior majoring in international studies with a minor in political science, according to the Virginia Tech memorial website. She volunteered with the Smithfield Volunteer Rescue Squad, the animal shelter and the battered women's shelter.

She also volunteered at the Luter Family YMCA and worked there as a lifeguard. The organization has honored her legacy with the Nicole R. White Scholarship since 2008.

It began when Smithfield residents approached the Y about starting an endowed scholarship in White's name, according to Peninsula Metropolitan CEO Danny Carroll. To reach endowment status, the community needed to raise about $100,000.

They raised close to $125,000.

"It memorializes a wonderful young lady that was someone a lot of kids need to look up to," Carroll said. "She exemplified the values of the Y. That's caring, honesty, respect and responsibility."

The $5,000 scholarship is given every year to a senior of Smithfield High School, White's alma mater. Recipients are chosen by a panel including White's parents, Carroll, Smithfield community members and other YMCA employees.

What they're looking for in applicants is exemplary volunteerism and leadership.

"The White family felt it was important for them that the recipient of this scholarship would exemplify the values that Nicole had in her lifetime," Carroll said.

Since she was awarded the Nicole White scholarship, Emma Mcintyre has only gotten closer with her faith, too. A junior at the University of Virginia, Mcintyre received the award in 2015. Now she has dreams of going to graduate school for neuropsychology.

"With the scholarship, it allows me to go to U.Va., so that itself is extremely important and significant in my life, and it's brought me closer to Christianity," she said.

Since receiving the award, she's learned more about White's work in the community.

"Wow, that girl was so amazing," Mcintyre said.

'April 16: Virginia Tech Remembers'

Suzanne Midgley remembers the snow falling the morning of April 16, 2007. She remembers talking to her mom. She remembers the class falling to the floor as the school alerted the campus to the mass shooting.

She didn't stay there long.

Midgley and a few other students in her media writing class jumped to their computers to document the chaos as best they could for the student news site Planet Blacksburg.

"A lot of us had classmates in Norris," she said. "We immediately started to report what we could."

Midgley said she worked through the rest of the day.

Her class was in Shanks Hall, a building Cho had classes in. The enormity of what happened didn't hit her until her parents insisted on showing up and taking her to Radford to spend the night.

She never considered leaving the school.

"It was never a thought in my mind that I wouldn't come back," Midgley said. "There's something special about Virginia Tech."

Instead she stayed on campus through the summer to work on "April 16: Virginia Tech Remembers." She edited the oral history along with other students and communications professor Roland Lazenby.

The group knew they wanted to focus on the lives lost — and the heroics of those who kept others alive.

"Writing the book was a way to say thank you to them to help remember them and not the incident," Midgley said. "I wanted to tell their story in who they were and what they did for our community."

Midgley tasked herself with editing stories on Nicole White, Lauren McCain and Matthew La Porte. She remembers transcribing the interviews and having to listen to the heartbreak in people's voices.

"Having to sit in a room and transcribe it and live through it again, it's a different heartbreak," she said. "I still remember those stories and hear the tone in their voice. I can still see them tear up at certain points."

It's a hardship that often resonates with Midgley in April.

"It's difficult because you know it's coming. It's a weight that just settles on your heart," she said. "It's a tragedy and a wait and a sadness that's always part of your life."

It hasn't kept her away from campus to visit friends and attend football games. Often that itinerary includes stopping by the memorial on Virginia Tech's Drillfield, where 32 "Hokie" stones honor the victims. It's where students, alumni and community members will gather for a vigil on Sunday.

Remembering the 32

Though he still has one month left of college, senior Pat Finn, from Basking Ridge, N.J., knows planning this year's Day of Remembrance will be the most important thing he's done at Virginia Tech.

A "lifelong" Hokie, Finn remembers hearing about the shooting as a sixth-grader in New Jersey. His parents were Virginia Tech alumni, and hearing the news stung. Years later, he applied early decision and says he's still falling in love with the school.

Like Dave McCain, it was a "no-brainer" that he'd get involved in the 10-year memorial.

"It's something that's hard to talk about because it's had such an impact on all of us but, (at the) same time, positively affected the community because we've come together," he said.

This time of year, things start to get a little harder for McCain. The mood on campus will grow somber as alumni and students gather to remember the 32 students. A number of events are planned that began Friday, including a 3.2-mile run/walk, community picnic and events for alumni chapters across the nation. On campus, April 16 is bookended with the lighting and extinguishing of a ceremonial candle.

McCain won't be there, though. He says it's too hard.

Instead, he'll be on his motorcycle.

Black can be reached by phone at 757-247-4607; Mishkin at 757-641-6669.

Alumni event

What: The Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association will hold a memorial.